Arbitrary sanctions

January 09, 2013

I agree with Gov. Corbett that the NCAA sanctions against Penn State were arbitrary and capricious, and violated anti-trust laws. The sanctions were based on a report commissioned by Penn State, but which has no legal standing. The methods used and the content of the report have been questioned by a number of people.

I always thought that in our country someone was innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The NCAA has tried, convicted and issued arbitrary punishments without due process. In essence, it used the court of public opinion to elicit $60 million from Penn State while giving the university a choice between bad and worse. NCAA officials passed judgment on a man who dedicated his life to education and sports and ruined his reputation when he was too ill to fight back or have his day in court. They punished players who were so far removed from the situation that it's a wonder that they could even win a game. The sick pervert who committed the crimes was not even an employee of the university when most of the acts he was convicted of were committed.

The press was equally guilty of this travesty by turning criminal acts committed by one sick man into a "scandal" that tried and convicted Penn State University, Joe Paterno and everyone else involved by the media, without due process in our courts of law.